FinanceMap scores this financial institution in the following areas. Please navigate to the relevant tab for in-depth analysis
FinanceMap assesses these portfolios for this financial institution. Please navigate to the relevant tab for in-depth analysis.
Fossil fuel companies are those whose primary sector falls within coal mining and services, or up-, mid-, and downstream oil and gas sectors. Green companies are defined as companies having over 75% revenue deriving from Substantial Contribution to Mitigation activities under the EU Taxonomy.
Portion of AUM Assessed: $79.8B
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Enel SpA | 10.8% |
| Iberdrola SA | 6.8% |
| RWE AG | 5.7% |
| Nextera Energy Inc | 5.6% |
| Engie SA | 5.6% |
| Duke Energy Corp | 5.3% |
| Brazilian Electric Power Co | 3.9% |
| Exelon Corp | 3.5% |
| Southern Co | 3.2% |
| Dominion Energy Inc | 2.8% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Kia Corp | 9.1% |
| Toyota Motor Corp | 8.8% |
| Stellantis NV | 8.5% |
| Great Wall Motor Co Ltd | 7.9% |
| Hyundai Motor Co | 7.7% |
| General Motors Co | 6.3% |
| Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd | 5.5% |
| Ford Motor Co | 5.5% |
| Honda Motor Co Ltd | 5.2% |
| Renault SA | 4.7% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Glencore PLC | 26.9% |
| Peabody Energy Corp | 25.8% |
| Coal India Ltd | 13.9% |
| China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd | 13.0% |
| Exxaro Resources Ltd | 6.1% |
| Arch Resources Inc | 4.2% |
| Adaro Energy Indonesia TBK PT | 2.6% |
| NACCO Industries Inc | 2.2% |
| CONSOL Energy Inc | 1.2% |
| Warrior Met Coal Inc | 1.2% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras | 14.1% |
| BP PLC | 9.1% |
| Exxon Mobil Corp | 7.4% |
| Shell PLC | 7.1% |
| Novatek PAO | 6.5% |
| TotalEnergies SE | 5.4% |
| Chevron Corp | 4.8% |
| NK Lukoil PAO | 3.5% |
| Eni SpA | 3.4% |
| Conocophillips | 3.0% |
Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM or Northern Trust) is a US-based firm that conducts its own engagements globally. It also has an agreement with Hermes EOS for engagement services with certain EMEA-domiciled funds. This profile represents the engagement activities of Northern Trust based on its publicly available reporting, the profile for Hermes EOS is available here.
Northern Trust appears to have a positive influence on companies on climate change. The asset manager appears to have a broad framework for climate engagements based on reducing climate and sustainability risks, using an ESG Vector Score as an indicator of corporate management of sustainability risks. NTAM has outlined engagement milestones, however these milestones lack detail on tracking company progress. It has an escalation response that includes voting in support of shareholder resolutions, voting against re-election of directors, and divestment.
NTAM appears to be actively engaging companies around climate, in particular through collaborative initiatives such as CA100+. It co-led engagements with National Grid on disclosure of Scope 3 emissions reduction targets, which resulted in the company setting a new medium-term Scope 3 target covering 80% of its Scope 3 emissions. It has also participated in an engagement with Sasol on its decarbonization strategy. The asset manager does not appear to have a clear stance on climate policy influence but has highlighted climate lobbying resolutions in its voting records and has supported majority of these resolutions. It appears to be a highly collaborative engager on climate, leading various engagements as part of CA100+.
Northern Trust has described its stewardship governance structure and appears to regularly review stewardship policies and activities. The asset manager is transparent about engagements, providing named case studies of its engagements through CA100+ as well as a list of companies it has engaged with. It discloses all proxy voting data, and includes specific details on its annual votes for climate specific shareholder resolutions.
NTAM does not appear to use shareholder authority to engage companies around climate.
Insightia data suggests that Northern Trust has mixed support of AGM resolutions InfluenceMap categorizes as in line with the Paris Agreement, supporting 16.7% in 2019 and 59.1% in 2020. Its support increased in 2021 at 81.3% but decreased in 2022 at 68.3%.
FinanceMap's methodology to measure the engagement process on climate was developed in consultation with several of the world's leading asset managers and uses key aspects of the UK Financial Reporting Council's 2020 Stewardship Code . The Stewardship Code was chosen to benchmark engagement quality as it provides an ambitious framework and detailed definitions of what constitutes effective engagement. FinanceMap defines the term ‘engagement’ as referring to all investor actions undertaken to influence the management strategy of the companies they own including private communications with corporate management and appointed advisors; questions at AGMs/other company meetings; comments on the company in the media; escalation and the shareholder resolution process (filing, voting behavior). FinanceMap’s methodology breaks the engagement process down into a set of sub-activities and looks for evidence associated with these across publicly available data sources.
Climate-relevance categorization of shareholder resolutions is based on the IPCC’s Special Report on 1.5°C and its concluded need for “rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities.” FinanceMap scored voting on any resolution where the intent and likely outcome is consistent with this IPCC stated need. The voting data is drawn from asset managers' disclosures to the US Security Exchange Commission (SEC), asset manager websites (including third-party websites they link to), directly from the asset managers, and through specialist voting data provider Insightia. The full list of resolutions assessed is available here.
The following table outlines the key queries and data sources, which FinanceMap uses to assess asset managers' corporate engagement programs. Every evidence piece is assessed on a five-point scale of -2,-1,0,1,2 or NA (not applicable)/NS (not scored). All queries, data sources, and evidence pieces are weighted against one another in a matrix system to arrive at a final top-level score. Clicking on specific cells will load the underlying evidence and information on how it has been assessed.
Northern Trust appears to have somewhat limited engagement on sustainable finance policy, generally supporting regulated corporate ESG disclosure and taking a somewhat less supportive position on policies to incorporate ESG factors into investor duties. Its asset management arm, Northern Trust Asset Management, appears to conduct most of its policy engagement.
Northern Trust Asset Management has recognized the systemic risk climate change poses to the financial system, but appears to support investor-led actions to address this risk rather than systemic reform. Northern Trust has stated support for increasing green investments in line with a 2C target and advocated action to achieve net zero by 2050. In 2022, Northern Trust Asset Management joined the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Northern Trust has appeared supportive of regulatory action on sustainable finance and characterized the EU’s approach to ESG regulation as a “well-designed plan” for other policymakers to follow.
Northern Trust appears to have taken mixed positions on regulated corporate ESG disclosure. In Northern Trust Asset Management’s 2022 TCFD and Stewardship reports, the company states support for efforts to regulate ESG disclosure in the US (SEC) and internationally (ISSB), including material Scope 3 emissions disclosure. However, in an April 2022 insights paper, Northern Trust appeared not to support the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule, emphasizing the cost of compliance with the proposed regulations and questioning the rule’s benefits. In comments to the SEC in June 2022, Northern Trust Asset Management took a mixed position toward the proposed rule, supporting the Scope 3 disclosure requirements and financial impact statement requirements but requesting an extended timeline for implementation and suggesting some companies and funds be exempt from reporting. In comments to the International Sustainability Standards Board in July 2022, Northern Trust Asset Management expressed strong support for the Board’s draft climate disclosure standards which are likely to inform government policy, including endorsing the draft’s Scope 3 disclosure requirements.
In an insights paper from August 2020, Northern Trust Asset Management contended that Trump-era Department of Labor rules would not completely shut down ESG investing, while also asserting that consideration of ESG can enhance investment analysis. In comments on the Biden-era Department of Labor’s 2021 rule that sought to overturn the Trump regulation, Northern Trust Asset Management asked for specific references to ESG considerations to be removed from language governing fiduciaries’ investment duties. In a 2022 blog post, Northern Trust Asset Management stated support for the final rule, which had removed the specific ESG considerations from its language.
Northern Trust has disclosed its membership to industry associations but has not disclosed the sustainable finance policy positions and engagement activities of these groups.
InfluenceMap’s methodology for assessing lobbying on sustainable finance policy closely follows InfluenceMap’s established methodology on climate policy engagement, which is used extensively by investors, including via the Climate Action 100+ investor engagement process. Our full methodology can be found here.
Under our assessment of sustainable finance lobbying, InfluenceMap considers engagement on all financial policies which intersect with climate and/or other sustainability issues. The analysis takes into account both the engagement of the financial institution and the activities of industry associations they hold membership of.
InfluenceMap’s methodology covers seven publicly available data sources, searching for evidence of engagement and corporate positioning since 2017. To determine the policy issues within the scope of the analysis, InfluenceMap breaks down sustainable finance policy engagement into a series of subcategories, or 'queries'. These are designed to cover high-level issues relating to the importance of sustainable finance, as well as more specific areas of sustainable finance policymaking. InfluenceMap’s research process searches for evidence of an organization's engagement with each sustainable finance policy issue, across each of the data sources.
The following table outlines the key queries and data sources, which FinanceMap uses to assess financial institutions’ sustainable finance policy engagement. Every evidence piece is assessed on a five-point scale of -2,-1,0,1,2 or NA (not applicable)/NS (not scored). All queries, data sources, and evidence pieces are weighted against one another in a matrix system to arrive at a final top-level score. Clicking on specific cells will load the underlying evidence and information on how it has been assessed.
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party.
In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Justin Chapman is on the board of AFME (last checked September 2023).
Justin Chapman (Northern Trust, Executive Vice President - Global Executive Securities Services and Global Head Market Advocacy & Innovation)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of AFME
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Justin Chapman is on the board of AFME (last checked September 2023).
Justin Chapman (Northern Trust, Executive Vice President - Global Executive Securities Services and Global Head Market Advocacy & Innovation)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of AFME
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Jeff Boyd is on the MFA board
Jeff Boyd (CEO North America, Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a board member of the MFA. As of March 2023, this no longer appears to be the case.
Peter Cherecwich (President – Corporate & Institutional Services)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of the MFA
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Jeff Boyd is on the MFA board
Jeff Boyd (CEO North America, Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a board member of the MFA. As of March 2023, this no longer appears to be the case.
Peter Cherecwich (President – Corporate & Institutional Services)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of the MFA
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of ICI. Global Head of Sustainable Investing and Stewardship Julie Moret serves on ICI's ESG Working Group.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Cynthia R. Plouché is on the board of ICI, on the Executive Committee.
Cynthia R. Plouché (Independent Director, Northern Trust Funds)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of ICI. Global Head of Sustainable Investing and Stewardship Julie Moret serves on ICI's ESG Working Group.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Cynthia R. Plouché is on the board of ICI, on the Executive Committee.
Cynthia R. Plouché (Independent Director, Northern Trust Funds)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Marie Dzanis is a board member at The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
Marie Dzanis (Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - Northern Trust Asset Management)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust Asset Management is a member of The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Marie Dzanis is a board member at The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
Marie Dzanis (Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - Northern Trust Asset Management)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust Asset Management is a member of The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of BPI.
not specified
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
As of December 2022, Michael O'Grady no longer appears to be on the board of Northern Trust.
Michael O'Grady (Chairman and CEO, Northern Trust)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of BPI.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of BPI.
not specified
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
As of December 2022, Michael O'Grady no longer appears to be on the board of Northern Trust.
Michael O'Grady (Chairman and CEO, Northern Trust)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of BPI.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of the American Bankers Association.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust is a member of the American Bankers Association.
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust Global Services is a member of UK Finance which is a national association member of EBF (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Northern Trust Global Services is a member of UK Finance which is a national association member of EBF (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
Open PDF file of Data Source
Open PDF file of Data Source
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Open PDF file of Data Source